MORE than 106,000 foreigners living in the country turned out for the Bureau of Immigration’s 2017 annual report of aliens which expired last week, a record high compared to the previous year.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said at the close of office hours last March 3, a total 106,036 foreigners had appeared at various field offices of the bureau in compliance with their annual reportorial obligation.
The annual report of aliens is implemented yearly by the BI pursuant to the 1950 alien registration act that requires all foreigners registered with the bureau to appear in person at the nearest immigration field office and pay their annual report fees.
This year’s turnout exceeded by more than 11.61 percent the 95,007 aliens who turned out for last year’s annual report.
Morente attributed the high number of registrants to the introduction of an online system in 2015 wherein alien registrants could electronically file their application for annual report via the Internet.
Chinese nationals topped the list with 28,189 registrants, followed by Americans with 10,980; Koreans, 8,799; Taiwanese, 6, 680 and Japanese with 5,133.
Other foreigners were British with 2,886, Germans, 1,929; Australians, 1,615 Australians, and Indonesians, 1,332.
Statistics also showed the bulk of the registrants were holders of pre-arranged working visas who numbered 24,514 and native-born aliens who totaled 18,301.
The third highest registrants were 15,765 foreign students who were issued study visas, followed by 14,060 aliens who became permanent residents here by reason of their marriage to Philippine citizens.